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Staten Island's scourge

A landmark law about to go into effect can help to thwart the impact of a Staten Island scourge. Its target is the widespread and dangerous abuse of prescription pills.

Two Island lawmakers in Albany have gained the support needed for their effort to block doctor-shopping, a common way abusers use to obtain controlled substances.

Spearheaded by Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island) and state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), the legislation creates a first-in-the nation Prescription Monitoring Program for doctors and pharmacists.

Physicians will have to consult the registry before writing a prescription for restricted medications to combat pain and stress. Pharmacists are to be required to update the registry whenever they dispense the opioids, such as OxyContin, Demerol and Vicodin.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, “This landmark agreement will help put a stop to the growing number of fatalities resulting from overdoses on prescription drugs. We have seen too many untimely deaths as a result of prescription drug abuse.”

That’s especially true on Staten Island.

The death rate in the borough from the misuse of addictive pills has skyrocketed by 180 percent since 2005.

Pain medication overdoses killed 31 Islanders in 2010, more than car crashes or murder. The borough topped the rest of the city in per-capita deaths from prescription pills.

Since early 2009, the Advance has shone a spotlight on the borough’s epidemic of abuse through an award-winning series of investigative articles. Pain medicines are too readily available on Staten Island. For example, we topped the rest of the boroughs in 2010 in oxycodone prescriptions written per capita, with 28 for every 100 people living here.

The new registry for doctors and druggists is designed to cut into prescriptions wrongly obtained by pill abusers.

Also under the law, the state Department of Health must put together a county-based drug takeback program so New Yorkers can dispense of their leftover prescription drugs and keep them from falling into the wrong hands.

In March, Staten Islanders turned in more than 400 pounds of pills during a federal drug take-back event.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island) has called for a national prescription monitoring program. It would be similar to the New York prototype.

The agreement in Albany came after negotiations among the Island lawmakers, Mr. Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state legislative leaders.

The bill is expected to pass both houses next week. The governor will then sign the legislation to fiight pill abuse.

“This is a big, big victory,” Mr. Cusick declared. “It’s something that we think will be a big piece of the puzzle in stemming the tide of this epidemic.”

Mr. Lanza echoed, “We get to do something that you don’t often get to do. Save lives.”

We commend both men for what they have done to protect Staten Islanders.